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SF 271 
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Story of 

CHEESE 

Johan D. Frederiksen 







^mr^B. '^mMM^m 




CHEESE 




Students Making Cheese in the University Cheese Factory, 
Madison, Wis. 

A Short Treatise on the Manufacture of Various kinds of 

Domestic and Foreign Cheese, Cheddar, Dutch, 

Swiss, ItaHan, French, Limburger, Neuf- 

chatel. Cream, Cottage Cheese, etc. 

by 

J. D. FREDERIKSEN 



PRICE 25 cents 



THE MOHAWK BOOK COMPANY 

LITTLE FALLS, N. Y. 

1918 



COPYRIGHTED BY 

J. D. FREDERIKSEN 
1918 



JUN 28 1918 

©CI.A499597 



INTRODUCTION 



The following pages are from Chapter III of a book to be pub- 
lished shortly, entitled THE STORY OF MILK, a manual for the 
Domestic Science student and a guide for the Housewife and all who 
desire to know something about the handling and use of milk and 
its products. 

The Story of Milk covers the following subjects: 

I. The Production, Composition and Characteristics of Milk, 
Testing Milk, Milk Ferments, Pasteurization, etc. 

II. Milk Supply and Creamery Products, Cream, Butter, Butter- 
milk, Ice Cream, etc. 

III. Cheese and other Milk Products, Milk Sugar, Milk 
Powder, Condensed Milk, etc. 

IV. Milk as a Food, Food Value, Milk for Infants and Growing 
Children, Milk Cookery including numerous recipes, etc. 

The present chapter is issued in advance to meet an urgent 
demand for a brief outline of the art of cheese making. 

For more complete directions in cheese making students are 
referred to "^ B C in Cheese Making' by J. H. Monrad, Urner- 
Barry Co., No. 173 Chambers St., New York, and other technical 
works. 

Readers interested in ''THE STORY OF MILK" may order 
the book through book stores or from the publishers, 

THE MOHAWK BOOK COMPANY, 

Little Falls, N. Y. 



CHEESE 



Cheese of a thousand different kinds is made, varying in proper- 
ties and appearance from the solid, yet mellow and agreeable 
Cheddar Cheese to the semi-soft, malodorous Limburger, the delic- 
ious, soft Neufchatel and Cream Cheese, or the sweet Myseost of 
Norway. In India cheese was made centuries ago; today it is pro- 
duced the world over, in the caves of the Swiss Alps and in the most 
modern and scientific American cheese factories and laboratories. 
Of these myriad types we can here describe only a few. 

Cheese may be classified into that made with rennet and that 
made without. Of cheese made with rennet some is what is called 
hard, some soft. 

The English and American Cheddar — the common American 
cheese — the Dutch Gouda and Edam, the Swiss Gruyere, and the 
Italian Parmesan are all hard cheese made with rennet. As examples 
of the soft varieties may be mentioned the French Camemhert and 
Brie, Cream and Neufchatel Cheese. In a class by themselves are 
such cheeses as the French Roquefort, the English Stilton, and the 
Italian Gorgonzola, their peculiar flavors being derived from molds 
implanted in the curd. 

When cheese is made without rennet, the milk is allowed to 
curdle by natural acidity or it is in some other way made acid. 
Among the varieties made by this method the common Cottage 
Cheese is the best known. 

For many years imitations of foreign varieties such as Swiss and 
Limburger have been made in Northern New York and Wisconsin. 
As a result of the war and the cutting off of foreign cheese imports, 
the State of Wisconsin has built up a large business in these fancy 
varieties. New types have lately been added, as the Romano, 



6 The Story of Cheese « 

Riggiano, and Myzethra, which are of Italian and Greek origin. 
Some of these are made of whole milk, some of partly skimmed 
milk, and others of the albumin of the whey. 

Let us briefly review the characteristic features in the making of 
the older types. 

CHEDDAR CHEESE 



For a hundred years or more this famous 
cheese has been made and marketed at the vil- 
lage of Cheddar near Bristol, England. 

In the middle of the nineteenth century a 
farmer in that neighborhood, Joseph Harding 
of Marksbury Vale, systematized the manufac- 
ture and it was his method that became the 
model for cheese-making in America. In this 
country it was first made in Herkimer County, 
N. Y., where Harry Burrell not only made 
cheese for the home market, but also exported 
to England, and his son, David H. Burrell, at 
Little Falls later developed the machinery 
which became the standard for the American 
and Canadian cheese factories. 




JOSEPH HARDING 

Who systematized the 
making of Cheddar 
Cheese in England 



The factory system by which cheese was 
made from milk brought together from several 
farms, originated near Rome, N. Y.. and 
soon cheesemaking became 
an important industry 
throughout Central and 
Northern New York 
whence it spread into 
Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
the West, as well as to 
DAVID H. BURRELL Canada. Today Wisconsin 
Who introduced labor-sav- makes more cheese than 

ing machinery and sup- n .1 ^i ^ ^ 

plies in the Cheese all the Other States to- 
Factories ^^^^^^ ^^^^ Canada large- 

ly supplies England with Cheddar Cheese of -^^SSE WILLIAMS 

„ „^11 i. lu Father of the American 

excellent quality. Factory System 





American Cheddar, Factory System 



AMERICAN CHEDDAR CHEESE 



The Factory System 

The milk is delivered in the morning by the farmers at the fac- 
tory and is weighed and strained through cheese-cloth into the 
cheese vat. When it is all in the vat it is warmed to a temperature 
of 86° F. by letting steam into the water surrounding the bottom 
and sides of the jacketed vat. 

Ripening. The milk should be slightly acid, not noticeably sour, 
yet sufficiently ripened for the proper fermentation to take place in 
the process that follows. The best cheese makers 
regulate the ripening by adding a starter to the 
sweet milk and allowing the lactic acid bacteria to 
multiply in the milk until a ''Rennet Test" or 
''Acid Test"" shows that the desired degree of acid- 
ity has been reached. The starter may be sour 
rj , ^,, whey or preferably prepared from sweet skim 

\i y J milk or whole milk with a commercial lactic acid 

H ^^^*^ culture as described in Chapter I under Ferments 
A Measuring' Glass and and Buttermilk. From 1 to 2 per cent, starter is 

an accurate thermometer . pto rtnry/ 

are indispensibie. usually sumcient. An acidity ot .io to .ZiJVc or 

21/2 degrees on the Rennet Test is usually desired before the rennet 

is added. 




*THE MARSCHALL RENNET TEST consists of a graduated cup (a) with 
a tine hole for an outlet in the bottom. One cubic centimeter of a standard 
rennet extract is diluted with water in the glass bottle (c). The cup is filled 

with milk and placed on the corner 
of the cheese vat, the milk being 
allowed to run through the fine hole 
in the bottom of the cup. The mo- 
ment the surface of the milk reaches 
the upper mark of the graduation in 
the cup the diluted rennet extract 
is added and quickly stirred into 
the milk with the spattle (d). 

When the milk begins to curdle it 
stops running out. The sweeter the 
milk is the more will run out before 
coagulation stops it and the mark 
on the scale at which it stops indi- 
cates the degree of acidity or ripen- 
ing. The point is to have the milk 
alike every day and if, for instance, 
the cheese maker has found that his 
cheese is best if he adds the rennet 
to the milk in the vat when the test 
shows 2|. he wants to ripen the milk 
to that degree every day. So, if the 
test shows 3 or 4, it indicates that the milk is not sufliciently ripened and it 
should be allowed to stand warm for a longer time before it is set with rennet. 




The Marschall Rennet Test 



THE ACIDOMETER for making an Acid Test is described in Chapter I. 



8 



The Story of Cheese 



Adding Color and Rennet.* If the cheese is to be colored, from 
1 to 2 ounces of liquid cheese color (Annatto dissolved in an alkali) 
per 1000 lbs. of milk is now added and thor- 
oughly mixed into the milk which is then set 
with rennet. Three ounces of a standard ren- 
net extract to 1000 lbs. of milk is usually 
sufficient. Enough should be used so that the 
milk will show beginning coagulation in 10 
to 15 minutes and be ready to cut in 30 to 40 
minutes. 

The extract should be diluted with ten 
times as much water and is then poured into 
CHRISTIAN D.A.HANSEN ^^^ milk under vigorous stirring so as to be 
Inventor of Commercial thoroughly distributed and incorporated in 

Rennet Extract ^^^ ^J^^Jg ^^gg^ 

Owing to the scarcity of the raw material for rennet extract 
during the war, pepsin extracted from hogs' stomachs has been 
substituted in many factories and is used either in dry form or as 
a liquid extract instead of rennet extract. 




♦RENNET (see under Ferments in Chapter I) is prepared from the third 
division of the stomach of the suckling or milk-fed calf. Fifty years ago cheese 
makers used to make their own rennet by soaking salted calves' stomachs in 
sour whev, and our grandmothers used a piece of a dry, salted stomach to make 



Junket or "Curds and Whey 
Denmark, began the prep- 
a r a t i o n of Commercial 
Rennet Extract which soon 
supplanted the home-made 
rennet in all countries 
wherever cheese was made. 
Nowadays rennet in liquid 
or powder or tablet form 
for cheese-making, and 
•Tunket Tablets for milk 
puddings, are prepared 
pure and of known strength 
in laboratories and handled 
by druggists and dealers 
in dairy supplies. 

The fresh stomachs are 
saved by the farmers or 
butchers and are either 
blown up and dried in the 
air protected from sunlight 
and rain, or split length- 
wise and spi-end out flat 
and salted on both sides. 

In the laboratory the 
ferment is extracted by 
chemicals and a pure, clear 
liquid extract is preparer!, 
of uniform strensrth and 
good keeping quality. Or 
the extract is condensed 
into a powder which again 
is compressed into tablets 
of great strength. 



About 1868, Christian Hansen, of Copenhagen. 




Blowing up the Rennets 
to dry them 



American Cheddar, Factory System 




With pepsin as the coagulant it is necessary to ripen the milk 
somewhat further than if rennet is used, in fact to the danger-point 
where a little more acidity is apt to do harm and produce a dry and 
crumbly cheese and loss of butter-fat in the whey. Most cheese 
makers therefore prefer rennet when they can get it. 

The rennet having been added, the 
milk is left undisturbed until a firm 
curd has been formed. When the curd 
breaks or splits sharply before the 
finger pushed slowly through it, it is 
ready to be "cut." 

Cutting. Two sets of curd knives 
are used, each consisting of a metal 
frame in which tinned steel blades are 
hung, in one vertically and in the other 
horizontally. The vertical knife is 
first carried slowly through the curd 
lengthwise and crosswise; the horizon- 
tal set of blades is then moved care- 
fully through the length of the vat. 
Wlien the cutting is over, the entire 
mass should be in cubes about half an 
Curd Knives ^^^ss^ inch square. 

The whey that begins to separate out should be clear and yellow. 
Milky whey is a sign that the butterfat is escaping in it; the curd 
has been broken up too violently. In curdling, the casein encases 
the butter-fat and the object of the breaking up of the curd in the 
vat is to expel the whey but retain the fat in the cheese. 

''Cooking" the Curd. Gentle heat is now applied to raise the 

temperature gradually to 98° or 100° in the course of about 30 

minutes. Meanwhile the small pieces of curd are kept floating in 

the whey by gentle stirring with a rake and the hands, and are not 

allowed to pack at the bottom of the vat. The heating is easily 

The ferment acts best when the milk is lukewarm, but it will do the work 
at temperatures ranging from 50°, or even lower, to 120° P. Strongly pas- 
teurized or sterilized milk will not curdle with rennet, but milk pasteurized at 
a low temperature is not changed enough to prevent it from making a firm curd. 
More rennet does not make a firmer curd but causes the milk to curdle quicker ; 
less rennet makes the process slower. Diluted milk will not curdle firmly, and 
the failure of milk to make a smooth coagulum of the usual consistency and in 
the usual time, the temperature being right and the regular amount of a 
standard rennet being used, is a never-failing proof that something is the 
matter with the milk. It has been changed from its natural condition by over- 
heating in pasteurization or by watering or doctoring, or it has not been 
properly ripened. 




10 



The Story of Cheese 



regulated by opening the steam valve little by little. Through the 
"cooking" the pieces of curd shrink to some extent and are hardened 
so that they will gradually stand livelier stirring without losing 
butter-fat. After the cooking the curd is left for an hour or so in 
the whey for a slight acidity to develop and it is then shoved toward 
the sides of the vat and the whey is drained off. Here again the 
"Acid Test" may assist in determining when the whey should be 
drawn. 




Cutting the Curd 

Cheddaring or Matting. After thorough draining, the curd is 
packed together in the bottom of the vat or on a "sink" provided 
with a false bottom covered with cheese-cloth. After fermenting 
for 10 or 15 minutes it is cut into large pieces which are again 
packed together for further matting. The exact condition to be 
attained can be determined only by experience. 

A simple test, the "Hot Iron Test," may, however, help the 
cheese maker to judge of this point. A handful of curd squeezed 
together and touched to a hot steam pipe or an iron rod heated 
almost red-hot in the fire under the boiler, and slowly withdrawn. 



American Cheddar, Factory System 



11 




"Cheddaring" or "Matting" the Curd 



will leave threads sticking to the iron. Depending upon the matur- 
ity of the curd, the threads will break at a length of from 1/2 to 2 
inches. Usually fermentation is considered sufficient when threads 
11/2 inches long are formed by this test. 

Salting. The matting is then interrupted by breaking up and salt- 
ing the curd. This 
can be done by hand 
or by a curd-mill 
which cuts or breaks 
up the curd and per- 
mits a thorough mix- 
ing in of the salt. 
Two or three pounds 
of salt to one hundred 
pounds of curd, or the 
curd from 1,000 lbs. 
of milk, is the usual 
ratio. 




Curd Mill 



12 



The Story of Cheese 




Filling the Curd iuto the Hoops 

Pressing. Stirring and cooling the salted curd to about 80° F. 
makes it ready for packing into the hoops in which it is to be 




The Gang Press 



American Cheddar, Factory System 



13 



pressed. The hoop is usually a cylinder of heavy tin with a 
"'follower" of wood on which the pressure is applied. Before the 
curd is put in, the hoop is lined with cheese cloth which remains on 
the cheese, when it is taken out. The press mostly used in the fac- 
tory is the continuous pressure "gang-press" in which a number of 
cheese can be pressed at the same time. 




Taking the Cheese out of the Hoops 

Curing. After 18 hours' pressure the cheese is taken out of the 
press and out of the hoop, weighed and placed on a shelf or table in 
the curing room. For the first week or ten days it is kept at a tem« 
perature of about 70°, later the cheese is removed to a cooler room 
and possibly placed in cold storage. Usually it is paraffined to 
prevent too much drying and cracking of the rind. ' 

To cure a first class Cheddar Cheese takes from three to six 
months, but most of the American cheese is made to cure much 
more quickly and is eaten two to four months old. Indeed, it is 
generally shipped from the factory eight to ten days old and what- 
ever further curing it gets is in the warehouse of the commission- 
man or in the grocery store. 



14 



The Story of Cheese 




Curing Room 

Form, Size and Packing. The old style American cheese is 
cyclindrical, about 14 inches in diameter, and varying in depth 
to weigh between 60 and 80 pounds. Various other forms are 
now often made, square and long or in fancy shapes, such as 
a ball or a pineapple. Aside from such freaks, which have 
never become very popular, other deviations from the large, stand- 
ard, American Cheddar, are also made to a considerable extent. 
People who have visited the beautiful National Dairy Shows held 
in turn in Chicago, Springfield, Mass., and Columbus, 0., the 
National Milk and Dairy Farm Expositions of New York City, the 
Ontario Provincial Fair held each year at Toronto, or the annual 
State Fairs in New York, Wisconsin, Michigan and other cheese 
making sections will have in mind first the prominent exhibits of the 
regular Cheddar, showing a uniformity in texture, form and taste 
that is really remarkable. But one will also admire the variety of 
other forms. There are the ''Flats'^ or ''Twins", packed two in a 
box and weighing together the same as one ''American'; the "Young 
Americas'' packed four in a box; the "Longhorns" of six to eight 
inches in diameter; others made like a loaf of bread and creased so 
that a pound or two may be cut off fairly accurately, etc. . 

The Giant Cheeses, weighing five to six tons, occasionally ex- 
hibited and cut up at World Fairs and on similar occasions are, like 
the pineapple cheese, a curiosity rather than an industrial product. 



Factory Cheese Making 



15 




Cheese Box 



One of the best forms, in the writer's 
opinion, is the small 5-lb. cheese, 
proportioned exactly like the large 
American. This makes a suitable size 
for an average family, the members of 
which have learned to appreciate a 
good cheese. If it is made smaller, too 
much is lost in the rind; if larger it 
gets too old before it can be consumed 
by one family. 

The larger cheeses are usually 
packed in neat, snug-fitting elm-wood 
boxes, with thin "Scale Boards" on the 
top and botton of the cheese, the smaller 
ones in paraffined pressed pulp or 
pasteboard boxes. 

Cleaning the Vats and Utensils. Like every other place where 
milk and its products are handled, the cheese factory must be kept 
scrupulously clean. Vats and utensils should be rinsed first with 
cold or lukewarm water or whey, then scrubbed with boiling hot 
water and if necessary with soda, soap, or washing powder. The 
surroundings should be kept neat and attractive, and the cheese 
maker must see that the transportation cans are kept clean by the 
farmers and the milk delivered in good condition. 

Yield. The yield is around 10 per cent, of the milk. To make a 
pound of fresh cheese takes from nine to eleven pounds of milk. 
In curing, a part of the weight is lost by evaporation, but this loss 
is reduced to a minimum by paraffining. 

Composition. The American cheese contains almost all the casein 
and the butter-fat of the milk, besides such portions of the milk- 
albumin, milk-sugar, and mineral matter as is held in the water 
or whey which is retained in the cheese. In round figures average 
American cheese contains equal parts of casein, butter-fat and 
water, 30 to 35 per cent, of each. 

Qualities. A good Cheddar Cheese should be mellow, yet solid, 
without holes, and of an agreeable taste, neither sharp nor bitter. 
Cheese can be made of skim milk, but it is hardly palatable. In 
the fall of the year, when the average milk is rich in butter-fat, one 
or two per cent butter-fat may be taken from the milk and the 



16 The Story of Cheese 

resulting partly-skimmed milk will still make a fairly good cheese, 
hardly distinguishable from full Cream Cheese. Under the laws 
of the State of New York it must, however, be marked "Skim Milk 
Cheese." 

CHEESE MADE FROM PASTEURIZED MILK 

From time to time attempts have been made to make Cheddar 
Cheese from pasteurized milk. If the milk is heated to 145° only, 
and held for 30 minutes at such temperature, its property to form a 
firm curd with rennet is not destroyed and it will make a fine 
cheese, but if it is pasteurized at a higher temperature it will not 
curdle firmly until it is ripened or otherwise brought back to the 
condition required for satisfactory action of the rennet ferment. 
Thorough ripening with a pure culture starter will do it, or an 
addition of muriatic acid will accomplish the same in a shorter 
time, but care must be taken not to use too much, which would make 
the cheese dry and crumbly. Dr. J. L. Sammis and A. T. Bruhn 
of the Wisconsin Dairy School worked out the problem and sys- 
tematized a process which is described in Bulletin 165 of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture and by which it is claimed a first-class 
cheese can be made regularly from thoroughly pasteurized milk. 

MAKING CHEDDAR CHEESE ON THE FARM 

It takes quite a little experience to make a good Cheddar Cheese 
and, unless one has the time and opportunity to study it and make 
it an every-day practice, it is not as a rule advisable to attempt 
making Cheddar Cheese in the home from the milk of one or a few 
cows. 

The amateur will usually find it easier to make Neufchatel or 
Cream or Cottage Cheese for home use or for the home market. 

If Cheddar Cheese is to be made regularly it is best to get an 
outfit consisting of a small boiler and a jacketed vat, although 
cheese may be made in a plain wooden tub or any other convenient 
vessel. The double bottomed vat generally used in American as 
well as in Danish dairies facilitates both the heating of the milk 
before setting and the "cooking" of the curd in the whey after 
cutting. Either low pressure steam, or — better— water heated by 
steam, is introduced in the space between the outer, wooden 
bottom and the inner, tinned steel or copper bottom. If it is 
cool the milk should be warmed to 86° F. . In the summer it 



Farm Cheese Makings 



17 




American Outfit for Farm Cheese Making 

may be warm enough as it 
comes in, fresh from the cow. 
If not, heat it by steam or by 
setting it in a "shot-gun" can 
in another vessel of hot water, 
stirring frequently, until the 
thermometer shows 86". It 
may be well to add a little 
buttermilk or sour whey from 
the preceding day, or a pure 
culture starter made with But- 
termilk Tablets, not to exceed 
1 or 2 per cent. 

If it is desired to make 
colored cheese add a teaspoon- 
ful of liquid cheese color, or 
^ cheese color tablet dissolved 
in warm water, to 100 pounds 
of milk, more or less accord- 
ing to season and the shade of 

color desired in the cheese. Taking' the Temperature of the Milk in a Shotgun Can 




18 



The Story of Cheese 



Curd Fork 



Next add the rennet. Where cheese is made from less than 500 

lbs. of milk Rennet Tablets are handy, one tablet to 80 or 100 lbs. 

For less than 50 lbs. of milk, Junket Tablets may be used, one to 

a gallon. Dissolve the tablet, or tablets, or fraction of a tablet, as 
the case may be, in cold water and stir the solution well 
into the milk, making sure of thorough mixing. Let stand 
covered for half an hour until a firm curd is formed. Cut 
or break the curd very carefully with a big knife or spoon 
or home-made fork with wires across the prongs, imitating 
as far as possible the operation with curd knives in the 
factory. 

"Cook" the curd as in factory cheese making. If steam 
is not available, allow the curd to settle and dip off some 
of the whey which is then heated and poured back on the 
curd so as to raise the temperature of the whole mass about 
2 degrees. Repeat this several times, gradually raising 
the temperature to 100°, a few degrees at a time. 
Keep the curd gently stirred up and floating in the whey and do 

not allow it to lie on the bottom of the vat long enough to pack 

firmly together, stirring once in a while until by smell and taste 

(if not also by acid or hot iron tests) it appears to be sufficiently 

fermented for the whey to be 

drawn, a condition that can 

only be learned by experience. 

This will be about two or three 

hours from the time the rennet 

is added. 

Draw the whey and press 

more out of the curd with the 

hands. Let the curd mat and 

break it up alternately several Plain Wooden Vat and Curd Mill 

times; finally crumble and pulverize it and keep it stirred with the 
hands, adding salt at the rate of three to four ounces to the curd 
from 100 lbs. of milk and continuing the stirring until the curd is 
cooled down to below 80°, when it should be 
|J|!mv'"||J||||| packed into the hoop and put to press. This 
salting and cooling may take another hour. 
The hoop may be made of wood or heavy 
tin of any size desired, with a loose follower 
of wood. The sides and bottom should be 
perforated to allow the whey to escape. Or 





Mold or "Hoop' 



Farm Cheese Making 



19 



it may be a cylinder without top or bottom, placed on a corrugated 
piece of board. Line the hoop with cheese-cloth before putting in 
the curd. 

Pressing. A home-made 
lever-press, as outlined in 
the diagram, may be 
made of a plank or bar, 
_, one end of which (C), is 
stuck under a piece of a 
board nailed on the wall 
while at the other end a 
weight iK) is applied 
which may be moved in 
and out to regulate the 

Diagram of Lever Press pressure. The hoop is 

placed under the plank at the fulcrum [Ki) near the wall If a 
compound lever-press or a screw-press is available it is better.. 



Kr 




Upright Factory and Dairy Cheese Press 

It is important that the pressure is applied straight so as to make 
the cheese even and not one side lower than the other. Begin with 
light pressure and increase it gradually every hour until at night 



20 



The Story of Cheese 




Danish Kettle and Cheese Vat 

the full pressure is applied. After one hour in press, take the 
cheese out and turn it in the hoop. 

OTHER TYPES OF CHEESE MADE WITH RENNET 

In the manufacture of the Dutch Gouda, the Danish Export, and 
other similar types, the cooking and matting of the curd, character- 




A Variety of Domestic and Forei^n'Cheese'made at the Dairy School of the University of Wisconsin 



Dutch Cheese 



21 



istic of the English and American Cheddar, are more or less omitted. 
Otherwise the process and the result are not greatly different. They 
are all "hard" or solid cheese of the same class, though there are 
hundreds of varieties in different localities, each with some pecul- 
iarity of its own. 

Gouda and Edam Cheese. The Gouda, like the Danish Export 
cheese, is made from whole or partly-skimmed milk which is set 
with rennet at 90° F. and is coagulated, ready for cutting, in fifteen 
to twenty minutes. The curd is broken with the 
"lyre," so-called, a frame on which piano wires 
are suspended. The curd is but slightly "cooked" 
and the whey is drawn while still sweet. After 
being pressed with the hands in the vat to squeeze 
out the whey the curd, still quite warm, is put into 
wooden molds and worked and squeezed in them 
with the hands for half an hour to eliminate more 
whey, when the mold is placed in a regular press 
for 12 to 18 hours. To salt it the cheese is placed 



The Lyre 




Curiog Room in a Gouda Cheese Factory 



22 



The Story of Cheese 



in a strong brine where it remains lor sev- 
eral days. It is then put on the shelf in the 
curing room where it is turned and rubbed 
daily and in four to six weeks it is mar- 
keted. The cheese is about 10 inches in 
diameter by 4 to 5 inches high. 




Gouda Cheese 




Mold for 
Edam Cheese 



The ball-shaped, red Edam Cheese is also made 
in Holland by a similar method to that of the 
Gouda but the milk is set at a slightly lower tem- 
perature — about 86° F. — and a starter of sour 
whey is generally used. 

Besides being colored in the usual way with 
Ajinatto, the outside of the Edam Cheese is painted 
with ''Turnsole" a harmless vegetable coloring. 



Swiss Cheese. The Swiss Gruyere or Emmenthal also belongs to 
this class. By special fermentation in the curd, gases are developed 
to produce the characteristic holes, which are wanted in the Swiss 




In Swiss Cheese Making the Curd is lifted out of the Vat with a Strong Cloth 



Swiss Cheese 



23 









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V 


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M^^^^^BBm^Mi 


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Swiss Cheese Press 



24 



The Story of Cheese 



cheese but not tolerated in the American or Dutch cheese. Often 
the Swiss Cheese is made as large as a wagon-wheel and is sub- 
jected to long time curing, sometimes for years. It was long sup- 
posed that first-class Swiss Cheese could only be made in the Alps. 
But a very good imitation is now made in Northern New York and 
Wisconsin. 

Roquefort. The French Roquefort is inoculated with a mold 
from stale bread which spreads through the cheese and produces 
the peculiar flavor of this type. It is made from sheep's milk and 




Milking the Ewes at Roquefort, France 

was formerly cured in cool subterranean caverns, but now in elab- 
orate curing houses. In this country imitation Roquefort is made of 
cow's milk and cured in cold storage. 

Parmesan Cheese is an Italian cheese made mostly in the Valley 
of the River Po and named from the City of Parma. It is produced 
from partly-skimmed milk and is allowed to become hard and dry, 
being used grated with macaroni. 

The milk is set with rennet at a comparatively high temperature, 
about 95° F., and when it is firmly curdled it is broken up and 
stirred rather vigorously, which makes the curd fine and dry. Color 
is now added — powdered Saffron — at the rate of 0.5 gram to 100 kg. 



Italian Cheese 



25 





3 


■■HB^KSHK ' ° M H^Hfi ^ 1 



Curing Room in a Roquefort Cheese Factory 

milk. The curd is cooked slowly under constant stirring to a tem- 
perature up towards 140° when the whey should be perceptibly acid. 
The curd is then allowed to settle in the round kettle and when 
fairly firm it is lifted up in a cloth, the same as in Swiss cheese 
making. The mold is also much the same as the Swiss and the curd 
is but slightly pressed. In the course of the day the cheese is turned 
once or twice and put into fresh cloth. The next day it is put into 
the curing room when it is rubbed with salt. In a few months the 
€heese is cured and is then scraped and polished with linseed oil. 
Sometimes it is kept in storage two or three years in a dark room at 
a temperature of 63° F. The composition averages: 32% water, 
21% fat, 41% nitrogenous matters and 6% ash. 
Caccio Cavallo is made in Southern Italy of a form almost like 
a beet root. The milk is set with rennet at about 95° F. and after 
the curd has been broken up the whey is dipped off and 
heated to boiling when it is poured back on the curd. 
The mass is then allowed to ferment eight to four- 
teen hours according to the temperature of the air. The 
quality of the cheese depends largely on this fermenta- 
tion. The fermented curd is cut into pieces and sub- 
merged in boiling water and is then kneaded and 
formed into the desired shape. 




26 The Story of Cheese 

After lying in cold water for two hours and in brine for thirty 
hours it is dried and smoked until it attains a fine golden color. It 
is made in various sizes, from 5 to 20 pounds, and the yield is said 
to vary from 10 to 16% of the milk. Caccio Cavallo is eaten on 
bread as well as with macaroni and is much relished by the Italians. 

Limburger, Brick and other similar semi-soft cheese of the 
proverbial strong flavor originated respectively in Belgium and 
Bavaria, but are now largely made in Northern New York and 
Wisconsin as well. 

The milk is set with rennet at a comparatively low temperature 
and the curd is cut while quite soft, care being taken, however, not 
to lose butter-fat. The curd is not salted in the vat but is dipped 
out into perforated wooden boxes or molds about 5 inches square 
and left to drain without pressure. The cheese are placed edge- 
ways like bricks on shelves and are rubbed with salt and turned 
every day until cured. During the curing process moisture exude& 
and a fermentation takes place which develops the well-known 
"Limburger" flavor. After eight or ten weeks the cheese is packed 
in paper and tinfoil and is ready for the market. 

SOFT RENNET CHEESE 

The soft cheese made with rennet may be classified as fresh 
and cured. 

Neufchatel. The fresh soft cheese of the Neufchatel or Cream 
Cheese type is easily made and may be produced in any house from 
a small quantity of milk. The milk is set at a comparatively low 
temperature, usually 72° F., with very little rennet, just enough to 
coagulate the milk in about eighteen hours. During that time a 
slight acidity develops in the milk. When it is firmly curdled it is 
carefully dipped on to cheese-cloth suspended on a frame, or into 
cotton bags where it drains over night. 

To make the cheese quickly a starter is sometimes used and more 
rennet employed. The milk is heated to 80° F., 25% starter and 
714 c. c. of rennet extract, or one rennet tablet per hundred pounds 
of milk, is added and the milk curdles in about 30 minutes. 

After draining for a few hours the curd is gently pressed for a 
similar time. When the whey is fairly well expelled, the curd is 
kneaded or run through a meat cutter with a little salt, not more 



Soft Cheese 



27 



than 21/2 oz. to 10 lbs. of curd. The outfit and the manipulation 
is essentially the same as described under Cottage Cheese. 

A superior quality is obtained by pasteurizing the milk and if 
that is done a pure culture starter should always be used. If the 
slow setting method is used a very small amount of starter, say y2%-, 
is sufficient but when the quick process is employed 10 or 25% 
may be added. 

To give it a good appear- 
ance for market, the cheese 
is molded in little tin molds 
very much like a quarter- 
pound baking powder can 
with open ends. The cylin- 
drical roll of cheese is 
wrapped in parchment paper 
and tinfoil and is imme- 
diately ready for consump- 
tion. In an ice box it will 
keep for a week or so. 
Neufchatel cheese may be 
made from whole milk or 
from 16 to 20 lbs. out of 100 




partly 
lbs of 



Molding Neufchatel Cheese 

■skimmed milk. The yield is 
milk. 



Cream Cheese is usually made in the same way. A mixture of 
cream and milk containing about 10% butter-fat is used, though 
sometimes the cream is not added until the time of salting. The 
mold is square, 21/4" x II/2" x 2" deep. These soft kinds of cheese 
are often mixed with chopped peppers, olives or nuts and make 
excellent sandwiches. 



Cured Soft Cheese. For Cream or Neufchatel Cheese, made for 
curing, the curd is salted more than for fresh cheese, or the molded 
cheese is rolled in salt. For a week or two it is placed in a curing 
room on straw mats or the like where it ferments slightly before 
being wrapped and packed for shipment. 

French Soft Cheese. The many forms of French soft cheese as 
represented by the Brie, the Camembert, etc., are subjected to special 
fermentations which give to each its peculiar flavor. Attempts have 



28 



The Story of Cheese 




Camembert Cheese Factory 



been made to use pure cul- 
tures of the bacteria active 
in such fermentations and 
so reduce the art of cheese 
making to a more scientific 
process. But it has been 
found that any desired kind 
of cheese cannot be made 
simply by adding a culture 
of this or that bacterium to 
pasteurized milk. Of vastly 
greater importance for the 
development of the proper 
bacteria is the handling of 
the milk and the curd by 
the experienced cheese 
maker. Inoculation with a 
pure culture alone does not 
make the special cheese 
wanted. 

CHEESE MADE WITHOUT RENNET 

Cottage Cheese. Of the sour milk types the common Cottage 
Cheese is the best known. It is made from skim milk which in a 

warm room will curdle when sour, 
whether rennet and a starter are 
used or not. The thick sour milk 
is heated to anywhere between 100° 
and 120° and dipped into bags of 
cheese-cloth hung up for draining. 
The next day light pressure is applied 
for 12 to 24 hours, when the curd 
is kneaded, slightly salted, formed 
into balls and wrapped in parch- 
ment paper or packed into jars. For 
this purpose paraffined paper jars 
are very practical. 

The more the curd is heated in 
the whey the drier will be the cheese. 
Often it is improved by allowing the 
curd to become rather dry and then 
workin.^ new milk or a little cream 




Mono-Service Jar 



Cottage Cheese 



29 




Pouring the Curdled Milk on Cloth to Drain 

into it, according to the use to which it is to be put — whether it is 
for bakers' stock or for the table. 

Simple directions for making Cottage Cheese are given in 
Farmers' Bulletin 850 and A. I. 17 issued by the United States 
Department of Agriculture from which we reprint the following and 
copy the accompanying illustrations: 

"One gallon of skim milk will make about 1% pounds of 
cheese. If the milk is sweet it should be placed in a pan and 
allowed to remain in a clean warm place at a temperature of about 
75° F. until it clabbers. The clabbered milk should have a clean, 
sour flavor. Ordinarily this will take about 30 hours, but when 
it is desirable to hasten the process a small quantity of clean-flavored 
sour milk may be mixed with the sweet milk. 

"As soon as the milk has thickened or firmly clabbered it should 
be cut into pieces 2 inches square, after which the curd should be 
stirred thoroughly with a spoon. Place the pan of broken curd in 
a vessel of hot water so as to raise the temperature to 100° F. 
Cook at that temperature for about 30 minutes, during which time 



30 



The Story of Cheese 



stir gently with a spoon for 1 minute at 5-minute intervals. 

"At the conclusion of the heating, pour the curd and whey into 
a small cheese-cloth bag (a clean salt bag will do nicely) and hang 
the bag in a fruit-strainer rack to drain, or the curd may be poured 
into a colander or a strainer over which a piece of cheese-cloth has 
been laid. After 5 or 10 minutes work the curd toward the center 
with a spoon. Raising and lowering the ends of the cloth helps 
to make the whey drain faster. To complete the draining tie the 
end of the bag together and hang it up. Since there is some danger 
that the curd will become too dry, draining should stop when the 
whey ceases to flow in a steady stream. 

"The curd is then emptied from the bag and worked with a 
spoon or a butter paddle until it becomes fine in grain, smooth, 
and of the consistency of mashed potatoes. Sour or sweet cream 
may be added to increase the smoothness and palatability and 
improve the flavor. Then the cheese is salted according to taste, 
about one teaspoonful to a pound of curd. 

"Because of the ease with which the cheese can be made it is 




Lifting the Cloth back and forth to facilitate draining 



Cottage Cheese 



31 



desirable to make it often so that it may be eaten fresh, although 
if it is kept cold it will not spoil for several days. If the cheese is 
not to be eaten promptly it should be stored in an earthenware or 
glass vessel rather than in one of tin or wood, and kept in a 
cold place." 

Making Cottage Cheese with Rennet. In the bulletin mentioned 
a method is also given for making the cheese with rennet or pepsin. 
Junket Tablets make a convenient form of rennet to be used for this 
purpose. 

The advantages claimed for this method are: 

1. A finer textured and more uniform cheese. 

2. The making requires less time and attention. 

3. Losses of fat in the whey are reduced. 

The process is the same as described above except that a solu- 
tion of Junket Tablets is added to the milk at the rate of one tablet 
to 100 lbs. of milk. For less milk use a fraction of a tablet, or 
dissolve one tablet in ten tablespoonfuls of water and use one 
spoonful of the solution for each 10 lbs. of milk. 




Apparatus Needed in Making Cottage Cheese 



32 



The Story of Cheese 



If a starter is used the rennet solution is added immediately 
after the starter is put in; if no starter is used the milk is left for 
five or six hours at 80° F. to ripen before adding the rennet. The 
milk will curdle over night. 

After draining for thirty minutes on cotton sheeting the ends of 
the cloth are tied together and a weight is placed on top to press 
the curd gently until the desired consistency is attained. 

Salt may be worked in at the rate of 21/2 ounces to 10 lbs. of 
curd. If desired, add sweet or sour cream at the rate of l/o pint to 
10 lbs. of curd or 1/4 pint of cream to the product from 30 lbs. 
of milk. 




Pressing the Curd 

It will be seen that Cottage Cheese made with rennet is really 
the same as Neufchatel Cheese, the only difference being in the form 
and packing or wrapping of the finished cheese. 

Snappy Cheese. By allowing the sour skim milk curd to ferment 
under careful regulation, a variety of sharp,snappy, more or less 
hard cheese can be made. Though there is no general demand for 
them, some kinds are quite popular in their own restricted locali- 
ties. The Danish ''Appetite Cheese" is only one of the many vari- 
eties which have as many names. 

Club Cheese and similar varieties are made by grinding up old 
dry cheese with a little butter and packing the product in jars or 



Whey Cheese 



33 



other attractive packages. American, Roquefort, or any other 
well-known type may be used as the stock for these cheeses. Every- 
where they are favorites in dining cars and lunch rooms. 

Whey Cheese. In Switzerland the so-called Zieger Cheese is made 
from sour whey, the albumin being coagulated by heat and, with 
whatever butterfat there may be left in the whey, skimmed off the 
top. In Norway "'Myseosf ("Ost" is Norwegian for cheese) is 
made by boiling down whey almost to dryness. If goat milk is 
available to mix in, it improves the cheese. The main substance is 
sugar of milk and the cheese has a sweet, syrupy flavor. 




Milking the Goat in Norway 



END. 



